With the Obama administration and lawmakers eyeing the possible end of major combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the next year or two, attention in Washington is turning to institutionalizing some of the U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) response rapidly stood up in the last five years. On Capitol Hill, where the next federal budget is under deliberation, the issue is emerging amid tightening fiscal projections and growing concerns about North Korea, Iran and China.
PROGRAMS SHELVED: The new U.K. government is shelving work on military search-and-rescue helicopters and the successor to Trident submarines to save almost $10.5 billion. The moves are part of a sweeping cost-cutting effort underway in London. Projects that have been suspended will be halted “for the time being” and considered as part of the spending review process announced last week, according to a prepared government statement June 17.
NEW DELHI — Those awaiting news about an increase in India’s current 26% cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in defense joint ventures are liable to be disappointed. R.K. Singh, secretary for defense production, said at the Eurosatory defense expo in Paris that the ministry favors continuing with the FDI limit. International investors have argued that the cap should be raised to 49% (Aerospace DAILY, May 11).
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) is expected to create a marriage of active electronically scanned array (AESA) antennas — combined in experimental arrays — that are controlled by easily updated and replaceable packages of software. The NGJ program will be developed in two parts. The first task is designing a pod for the Navy’s EA-18G Growler. The second part of the problem will be refining NGJ for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter so that the stealth signature will not be altered by external pods.
PARIS — The U.S. Army awarded ITT an $8.4 million contract to continue supplying its AN/PVS-14 night-vision monocular device, the company announced here at Eurosatory June 16. It is the latest Omnibus VII contract from the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Acquisition Center, following orders already placed under the contract for 400,000 AN/PVS-14 monocular devices, 3,000 AN/PVS-7 goggles and 100,000 associated spare image intensifier tubes.
USAF COMMS: Arinc Engineering Services has won the U.S. Defense Department’s Data Link Services Provider contract, which means the company will continue as the primary provider of commercial aviation communication services for the U.S. Air Force. The company has fulfilled this role since 2001. The award, managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency, has a total value of $20 million over five years.
AIR BOSS: Several Washington newspapers are reporting that U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Amos is the Pentagon leadership’s choice to become the armed service’s next commandant, a move that could shake up the Corps by establishing an aviator on top during two land wars and changing military policies. A former F-4 and F/A-18 pilot, Amos’ selection could turn negative for the embattled General Dynamics Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, the reports surmised. Amos, currently assistant commandant, would follow retiring chief Gen. James Conway.
A Pentagon assessment of the national security risks of removing satellites and related components from the United States Munitions List (USML) is expected imminently from the Defense Department, along with the Obama administration’s long-awaited Space Posture Review (SPR), AVIATION WEEK has learned.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stood their ground June 16 in testimony to Senate defense appropriators who peppered them on the Joint Strike Fighter’s alternate engine, C-17 airlifters and other spending priorities.
PARIS — The Australian Defense Department recently signed a US$112 million contract with Harris Corporation for Falcon tactical radio systems, part of an initial phase of battlefield networking to the Australian Army and Air Force. The order consists primarily of Falcon III AN/PRC-152(C) multiband handheld radios. Australia is also acquiring Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-117G wideband, AN/PRC-117F multiband and AN/PRC-150(C) high-frequency manpack radios.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Following the successful debut flight of its Falcon 9 launcher, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has won a hotly contested contract to put the next-generation Iridium communications satellites into orbit. The $492 million contract, announced June 16, covers an unspecified number of launches for Iridium Communications Inc., which recently announced a $1 billion contract with Thales Alenia Space to build the Iridium NEXT network, which is expected to number 72 spacecraft.
PARIS — For the first time in years, Embraer expects its military export sales to top its sales to the Brazilian defense ministry. The shift comes largely on the heels of strong activity on the Super Tucano training/light attack aircraft. Defense activity has been resurgent at Embraer in recent years. At one point it dropped to 3% of overall company revenue, but it now has rebounded to 6% and this year should reach 13% with sales reaching $650 million, according to Orlando Neto, the company’s executive vice president for the defense market.
Scientists are using ground-based telescopes and the Hubble and Spitzer orbiting observatories to begin the painstaking task of weeding out the “maybes” from false alarms in the initial data sets from NASA’s Kepler mission as they search for Earth-like exo-planets outside our Solar System.
FUZZY FORECAST: A persistent disruptive forecasting system should be built to help the U.S. intelligence community reduce the risk of being blindsided by disruptive technologies — but it will not be easy, in part because of past disruptive technologies like the Worldwide Web, according to a new report from the National Academies.
Qinetiq is preparing to launch the latest version of its Zephyr solar-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle on a flight that is expected to last two weeks, which would set a record for the longest nonstop flight by an aircraft. The previous version of the Zephyr flew for just over 83.5 hr. in August 2008, setting an unofficial record. The latest aircraft has improved batteries for increased energy storage and a new airframe with lower drag to conserve power through the night.
PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy says the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will join the allied naval force in the Arabian Sea later this year to reinforce air operations in Afghanistan. During a visit to the carrier at its home port in Toulon, in southern France, Sarkozy said it would head out to sea before the end of the year on its first mission since an 18-month shutdown for major overhaul and repair of a propulsion system defect. The vessel returned to operation last December.
PARIS — Boeing affiliate Insitu is pursuing talks to sell its ScanEagle light tactical/maritime UAV in six European countries as it prepares to bring out a more readily exportable higher-payload version.
NIGHT BIRD: The Solar Impulse HB-SIA is getting closer to the attempted through-the-night flight for the solar powered vehicle. Program officials say they expect to attempt the mission, the key milestone for the HB-SIA, between June 20 and June 30. The flight test campaign is also designed to validate the configuration for the HB-SIB, which would be used for an around-the-world flight in 2013. The first flight took place at the Payerne Air Base in Switzerland, with the aircraft reaching close to 4,000 ft. in altitude.
A recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) needs to take several measures to better guarantee information assurance. DTRA came up short on personnel certification, and the data it submitted to Congress may be suspect, the IG says in its report, “Selected Controls for Information Assurance at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency,” released last month.
PARIS — Contenders are eyeing an emerging French anti-armor missile requirement, although budget revisions may yet affect the shape and timing of a procurement. European missile manufacturer MBDA is continuing to try to recover its once-strong position in land-based anti-armor systems with the launch of its MMP (Missile Moyenne Portee) and the MLP (Missile Longue Portee) family of missiles. Thales also is considering whether and how it will compete for the potential business.
LONDON — France has begun flight trials of MBDA’s Scalp Naval sea-launched cruise missile to support the planned purchase of 200 of the missiles for ship- and submarine-borne applications.
MRO MILITARY EUROPE 2010 ExCeL, London, UK September 29-30, 2010 Learn to maintain military assets longer; sustain aircraft beyond forecast; recover from budget cuts, delays and program cancellations, and develop new strategies required to deliver and support equipment. Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/events Click here to view the pdf
